Walmart restricts amount of shoppers at one time to enforce social distancing amid coronavirus

[left-of-center2012]

Source: NY Daily News

Beginning Saturday, Walmart will allow a maximum of five customers for each 1,000 square feet at a given time, reducing its capacity to about 20%, in an effort to facilitate social distancing and keep customers a minimum of six feet apart from one another and employees and hopefully avoid spreading the potentially deadly illness, according to a news release the company published Friday.

To enforce the new rules, workers will “mark a queue at a single-entry door (in most cases the Grocery entrance) and direct arriving customers there, where they will be admitted one-by-one and counted.” Employees and signs will be used to remind shoppers to social distance and when a store hits capacity, shoppers will only be allowed in on a “1--out-1-in” basis.

Exiting customers will have to leave outside a different door than the one through which they entered the store. Walmart’s move comes as Costco, Target, and supermarket chains enact similar initiatives.

Among its other newly enacted safety measures Dacona Smith, the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Walmart U.S. announced last week that the chain would install floor decals at entrances and checkout lanes to help people better gauge the appropriate distance to stand from one another.

Read more: https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-coronavirus-walmart-patron-restrictions-20200404-bv6vjuwz6jg77hnlgbsglu3lwa-story.html

[bucolic_frolic]

1. 20% of capacity seems light for peak times

There was a small crowd of people at my Walmart midweek at 6AM. Entrances taped off, carts used as barriers, floor markers everywhere. Manager comes out at 6 and announces not opening until 7. I got back to them shortly after 7. There were far more people at 7 than when I left shortly after 8. Hopefully they have this gamed out, they've had 3 weeks to observe traffic.

Hope they're not regulating the food supply. Cereal was 1/2 empty, meat same. Public probably stocked the pantry with non-perishables. Veggies were plentiful. Deli was closed.

[left-of-center2012]

4. "Hope they're not regulating the food supply"

I hope they limit the quantity per person to avoid hoarding.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. lol well you can't hoard what's not on the shelves, so that's safe anyway

With no evidence because I didn't go 3 times in a day, I think they stock small bunches 2-3 times a day. Or maybe quantity doesn't make it to shelves because pickers are filling orders for pickup in the warehouse areas

[Massacure]

10. It depends on how you define peak.

The International Fire Code stipulates that for a "sales area on the street floor", the occupancy of a building may not exceed one person per 30 square feet. Walmart is limiting capacity to one customer per 200 square feet, which is roughly 20% capacity when you add employees into the mix. That said, unless you are talking about the day after Thanksgiving, I doubt Walmart comes anywhere near one person per 30 square feet

From Walmart's website, the average size of one of their discount stores is 107,00 square feet and the average size of one of their super centers is 187,000 square feet. That means they would facilitate 535 and 935 customers respectively with these new rules. Going off the fire codes, they would facilitate 3,560 and 6,230 people.

[Hortensis]

15. :) I define peak as various clusters that occur as should be expected.

Those were often far denser than 1 per 30 sq ft around meat, lunch meat, cheeses when I went to the first early senior hour, and also congestion often occurred when I'd go down a fairly empty aisle and people would enter from either end and turn into clusters as people tried to shop and move past each other. Optimal social distancing is impossible, of course, between even 2 people moving past each other in an aisle.

I was distinctly unhappy with situations I found myself in, in spite of my efforts to be safe, to the point that I didn't go back even though a Walmart is closest by a few miles. I decided that shopping later in the morning at a more expensive supermarket would be better, even if it hadn't just been cleaned. And it definitely was as far as congestion was concerned.

But this should help a lot.

[Phoenix61]

2. Home Depot started this a week or so ago. nt

[Ohiogal]

3. I think this is a good idea

Even though it will inconvenience many people (myself included)

Not enough folks were staying home. They had to announce on the local news here Don’t go shopping if you’re bored!

[Steelrolled]

6. "Don't go shopping if you're bored!"

That is really difficult for some people.

[Sapient Donkey]

13. I noticed that may have done that more than I thought I did

I caught myself a few times these past few weeks thinking I should go to the store, but like I really didn't have to. Whereas before I wouldn't have put any thought into it, but now obviously there's a lot of considerations.

[Absolute Kelvin]

7. Classic Onion

[Sapient Donkey]

14. *deletes my "I was driving by a walmart this morning and saw..." comment I made below*

[tnlurker]

8. I drove by the Sam's Club and Walmart today

Both had lines to get in that looked like it would take you an hour just to get in the door. I use the Sam's pharmacy for my prescriptions. Today I just kept driving...I'll try on Monday to pick them up.

[left-of-center2012]

9. My pharmacy delivers n/t

[luvtheGWN]

22. My neighbour went to our local Costco in southern Ontario

2 weeks ago. She lined up outside for about 10 minutes, the shelves were full, and all in all it was the best shopping experience she'd ever had there! Lots of parking places, no long line-ups at checkout and everyone keeping their 6-ft distance. Also plexiglass shields at checkout, which all our grocery stores (large and small) have installed.

[totodeinhere]

11. In my community I'm finding some small mom amd pop neighborhood stores to be

well supplied. The supermarket I usually shop at was out of both eggs and milk but a small corner store a few blocks from me had both. And it was not very crowded at all.

[Sapient Donkey]

12. I saw that taking place this morning. I was just driving by one so I didn't get the details.

[DeminPennswoods]

16. My experience

Went to the local Walmart pretty early. There was a guy outside with a phone or small tablet counting people. There was a line of 4 or 5 people, but as 1 person came out, another went in. LIne went fast. They had a security guard at the door, too, directing when the next person could go get a cart. Shoppers were coming in and out of the same entrance, though. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to keep the shoppers in store number stable. They had yellow caution tape around the entrance laced through overturned shopping carts. Of course there's nothing they can do when all the shoppers head for the food section or pet food and are passing each other in the aisles.

There's really nothing I need at Walmart that I can't get at other grocers, pet stores, dollar stores or home depot/lowes. I will probably shop at those as they aren't that crowded anyway.

[ProfessorGAC]

17. Watching Local News This Morning

Nearly all the major chains around here are adopting this.
Jewell, (Midwest version of Albertson's or Acme), Meijer, WalMart, Target, Lowe's. Haven't heard about Menard's, Whole Foods, Costco, or Aldi. But, they'll probably do the same.

[xmas74]

27. Our local Aldi is now 1 cart, 1 person

And no children.

[FakeNoose]

18. Well this needed to happen

... because too many families were taking an entire group on shopping trips, just like always. Not enough families were changing their shopping habits during the CV19 quarantine. So now the Walmarts and Targets are MAKING them change. There's no reason for an entire family to go shopping together with multiple shopping carts/buggies.

One person shops for the family, one buggy per person. Everybody else stays home. Delay purchasing anything that isn't an absolute necessity.

[dalton99a]

24. +1. Some people use their Costco/Sam's Club card to bring their extended families

[Nitram]

34. Is that illegal, dalton?

[MissMillie]

19. my neighbor just got a part-time job at Wal-Mart

She told me about another policy they've made:

Getting food and/or household items is fine, but non-essential stuff (TVs, furniture, bicycles, etc) need to be purchased online and/or for store pick-up.

It makes sense to limit the number of people in the store, though if shoppers don't know about this policy, they've made the trip to the store for nothing.

[Crabby Appleton]

29. Thanks for the warning

I have bunji cords on my shopping list

[eilen]

35. I went to BJ's wholesale after work for a grocery trip

There were a few people buying big TVs but most were there for grocery staples (meat, dairy, etc.). Still, no TP nor paper towels. I noticed there were a lot of couples shopping together.

My county announced a new unenforceable rule-- a voluntary thing but they want people to alternate-- if they were born in an odd year, only shop or go to a county park on an odd day. I'm on an odd year, my husband is not-that means we can't take a walk together at the county parks? I think they should have changed it for the license plate. So basically, if they decide to make it mandatory/an enforceable law, they can. Kind of how they managed the oil crisis in the 70's.

[ConstanceCee]

20. Number

It should say "number of shoppers".

[Nitram]

21. Look out, the Grammar Police just arrived! That's "number" not "amount" when speaking of

people.

[luvtheGWN]

23. Maybe Constance is just wanting to preserve

what's left of the English language!

[Nitram]

30. No, I was identifying myself as the Grammar Police.

Constance and I have a dirty job, but someone has to do it.

[luvtheGWN]

33. Okay then.

Continue to "preserve and protect". You have my blessing!

[dalton99a]

25. Volume of shoppers

People have 3 dimensions

[Nitram]

32. Good try, but I'm afraid I have to give you a "D+" Mr. Dalton.

People are countable. Coffee is not. Coffee beans are. The multiverse has nothing to do with it.

[Tetrachloride]

26. Social distancing in Wisconsin is not working when families enter a store.

The leading convenience store in our area is not limiting customers.

[niyad]

28. Number, not amount.

[ReformedGOPer]

31. It's about time